In the past, Rwanda suffered from deforestation because of people using firewood. Firewood is now expensive and rare, and will soon be made illegal in favour of biogas.
The King David Academy needs a biogas installation to supply them with gas to cook on. The project is called Green Beans, because the main meal the students get at school is beans. These beans will be turned into green power, because the students’ exrement will be used, alongside manure, to power the biogas installation!
Green Beans has several great advantages for the King David Academy:
- – Sustainable energy
- – Reduction in costs resulting lower school fees
- – Cows supplying milk for the students
- – Improved facilities for better toilets and hygiene
The project experienced a delay of one year because the biogas digester needed to be certified by the Rwandan Bureau of Standards and because human exrement could not be used. In 2016 the project was succesfully completed: both the milk production and the biogas production were delivering as estimated. The 20 cows supply 250 liters of milk per day, which is enough for the 1000 students. The cows also supply 400 kg of manure, which is turned into 50 m³ of methane, reducing the amount of firewood by 40%. This allows the King David Academy to save €2500 per month!
